Telegram Cyber Attack PSA and How To Protect Yourself!

TL;DR

• To prevent Telegram RCE attacks, go to settings → Data and Storage → Automatic Media Download → Disable auto-download for ‘Photos,’ ‘Videos,’ and ‘Files.’

Full Story

We have a safety PSA for y'all!

Telegram's media files could be corrupt. 

But, before you get in a frenzy - we have the solution for you.

Cause friends have each other's backs, and we’re all friends here!

The gist of the attack is that hackers are able to deploy a remote code execution (RCE) attack by attaching them to media files like images or videos.

As you click on them, you are allowing the malware to come into your space (not great!).

So! As a protective measure: Just disable the auto-download feature. 

Specifically on your desktop:

Go to settings → Data and Storage → Automatic Media Download → Disable auto-download for ‘Photos’, ‘Videos’, and ‘Files’ across all chat types (private chats, groups, and channels).

And, Voila. 

You, our friend, are now safe from automatically-downloaded RCE attacks on Telegram.